A mother goes into labour in the dead of night, but the hospital gate remains closed. Another delivers her baby on a cold veranda, exposed and humiliated. Families recount desperate midnight drives to hospital, only to watch their loved ones die in the back seats of cars while medics were on strike. In some facilities, darkness itself becomes the enemy, hospitals operating without electricity or backup generators, leaving patients and staff helpless. These are the painful testimonies emerging from Embu County. More than a decade after healthcare was devolved under Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, counties were expected to bring quality services closer to the people. At the same time, the government’s push for Universal Health Care (UHC) promised that no Kenyan would be denied treatment because they could not afford it. But in Embu, that promise appears painfully broken. #LockedOut, produced by Martin Mukundi, investigates the human cost of a healthcare system that many residents say is failing them, exposing stories of neglect, desperation, and a struggle for dignity at the hospital gate.
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